Definition
Project Management
Unlike the relatively steady state of an on-going enterprise, a
project has some distinctive characteristics of its own. Capital
undertakings normally have a well defined starting point and a well
defined objective which identifies the completion of the work. Further,
resources limited in one way or another place constraints on the
work to be accomplished, and underline the need for special management
control. Hence the need for Project Management. However, let us
first agree on what a project is. According to the Project Management
Institute, an international organization dedicated to advancing
the state-of-the-art in the profession of project management:
A project is:
"Any undertaking with a defined starting point and defined
objectives the achievement of which identify completion. In practice
most projects depend on finite or limited resources with which
the objectives are to be accomplished." (PMI, 1985)
Managing, by the way was well defined as long ago as 1916 by Henri
Fayol. He said:
"To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command,
to coordinate and to control. To forecast and plan means examining
the future and drawing up the plan of action. To organize means
to build up the dual structure, material and human, of the undertaking.
To command means maintaining activity amongst the personnel. To
coordinate means bonding together, unifying and harmonizing all
activity and effort. To control means seeing that everything occurs
in conformity with established rule and expressed command."
(Henri Fayol, Administration Industrielle et Generale, 1916.)
And:
Project Management is:
"The art of directing and coordinating human and material
resources throughout the life of a project by using modern management
techniques to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, cost,
time, quality and participant satisfaction." (PMI, 1985).
Not everyone is familiar with the word "Scope" by the
way. "Scope" means the work content and finished "products"
for which the project has been designed. Sometimes scope may be
represented by a statement of the results or performance expected,
leaving the content details to the designer. Similarly each phase
content, or component such as "work package" (which is
discussed later) also have associated scopes.
Scope is fully defined by detailing the end products resulting
from the project, including quality standards, all activities performed
and the resources consumed. A scope statement should be introduced
by a brief background to the project, or component, and the general
objective.
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Introduction
